Review of Solace (2015) by Thequietgamer — 24 Mar 2017

Solace wants to be so much deeper than it actually is. The problem is that the premise is just too absurd. Rather than diving into this absurdity and having some fun with things, director Afonso Poyart tries to go for self-serious and poignant. A pretty odd thing to do with in a movie about an old dude with psychic powers hunting down a serial killer. Plus the execution isn't quite there. Often when it tries to go for meaningful and intense, it just ends up embarrassing itself. Luckily though, not all of the fun from the core idea ends up process.

Like most movies that want to be something more, but ultimately just don't have the writing to back it up, Solace tries to trick audiences into thinking there's more going on underneath the surface with a flashy sense of style. Scenes carry that same artsy, overblown, and almost sterile feel and look to them that so many of this ilk use. The movie even looks pretentious. While this does lead to some cool looking moments, more often than not it's just unintentionally goofy and fails to carry the emotion Poyart was going for. It's style over substance. All flash and little to no bang. Anthony Hopkins does a fantastic job in the lead. No surprise there. He carries the movie until Colin Farrell shows up in the second-half and steals the show. Farrell's bizarre performance is the best part of the movie. So much so that he feels out of place amongst the rest of the cast. Of course that may not be saying much. It's not like really anyone else attached to the project is an A-list actor. Debatably, neither is Farrell. Yet, here he's just so good that he feels like one.

That's not to say that the rest of the cast outside of Hopkins and Farrell is bad. It's just that these aren't exactly big name actors. You'll see some familiar faces here and there. Mostly just supporting characters from The Walking Dead and Daredevil. So really outside of our leads the only people you'll really be paying attention to are Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish, who share the spotlight. While Cornish is just kind of there, Morgan ends up being just as likable as Hopkins and Farrell in his own ways. Mostly just because of that sarcastic sense of humor and say anything style that made him so memorable in Watchmen and as Negan on The Walking Dead.

While it does let itself get distracted with pompous style and writing missteps, it's not a complete dud. It's still pretty cool to see Hopkins psychic powers in motion. His mind game of cat-and-mouse with Farrell is more entertaining than it has any right to be. The movie also has some fun shootouts, case work, and a car chase. Standard popcorn affair, but it works even if this is one of those movies where you can predict every little beat. Overly familiar, a little dumb, and it tries to be too serious and ends up with little to show for it. But darn if it doesn't have a (mostly) good cast. The biggest disappointment is that you can tell the people behind it were clearly trying to make something that deals with the complexity of how humans deal with the concepts of death, suffering, and loss, but ultimately just couldn't pull it off. Should have just stuck with some sci-fi, psychic fun. Oh well, not all it lost. It's still stupid fun in a lot of ways. It just needed better execution and more focus given on making it a fun psychic thriller, rather than an overambitious dark drama-thriller.

6.